Amp/Preamp Asylum

Panasonic SA-XR45 + subwoofer...HELP!

Does anyone else get significant output on the LFE out when using a sub with the Panny and having speakers set to "large" and subwoofer set to "on" when listening to 2 channel stereo sources? There wasn't enough there for my Mirage LF-150. Anyone else notice this?

My Adire Rava arrived today and it does not appear to suffer from the same issues that the Mirage did. The Mirage was a floor model, so I might chalk it up to that. Two channel stereo PCM/CD definitely produces a signal at the LFE output. Digital cable seems to as well, although I did catch it turned off at one point. Then again my son was watching "Clifford" on PBS. Probably not a lot of bass content in that one ;-). I put on Dhizan and Karmin's Gran Riserva and there was definetely bass output from the subwoofer. I've got the gain on the Rava set to 12 o'clock and the sub setting on the Panny set to "Min". I'm thinking I may want to change that, just to give myself a little more control from the Panasonic. Nice thing with the Panny is, the subwoofer volume is easily controlled from the remote.

I can get plenty into a REL Storm III through its RCA inputs. Do you have the subwoofer output level on the Panny turned up high enough? I don't need much gain on the REL to get it swingin at the same levels as when run speaker level on my main system.

Thanks for the follow up. My Mirage LF-150, would many times just never turn on. It didn't seem to matter the source: digital cable, DVD, XM Radio. Even if I had the Panny sub volume at "max", I would still have to turn the gain on the subwoofer to 3/4 or higher to get it to stay on. This very well could be an issue with a sub. I have since returned the Mirage sub and my Adire Rava should be here tomorrow, so I will know for sure then. If the Rava exhibits similar behavior, then I may have to look at the Panny. Another question for you...

If I am listening to 2 channel stereo with sub set to "on" and all speakers set to "large", what is coming out of the LFE output? Is it a full range signal, which is then dealt with by the sub's crossover, or is it already crossed over at whatever the Panny's filter setting (100, 150, 200) is set to?

There is definitely some output, but it just wasn't enough for my Mirage to continually stay on. My Adire Rava should be in tonight and I will test it as well, to see if it is an issue with the sub or the output on the Panny. See...ideally what I would like to see is a signal strong enough to keep the subs auto on feature going, be it full range or even crossed over at the Panny's 100hz filter setting coming out of that output. That way my Mirages can run full range and I can cross the sub over nice and low around 40-50hz

DD/DTS (1.1-6.1) defines a sub signal with all speakers set to "Large" as a .1 or LFE only source signal. This means no signal will be output to the XR45 sub-out jack even though sub is set to "yes" in the XR45 setup menu.

If the XR45 setup software has a "both" setting for the sub (mains+sub both outputting the same low frequencies) then you would get output to the sub.

The "both" setting is the only way you could get output to the sub from a PCM 2-channel digital source with all speakers set to "Large", as there is no .1 channel encoded in the PCM source signal.

There might be some small signal leakage in the XR45 that is causing your auto-on sub to think it might be a signal.

> There might be some small signal leakage in the XR45 that is causing your auto-on sub to think it might be a signal.

I don't know, there is definitely music there and it can be quite loud. It is just that at lower volumes, what I consider my average listening level, the sub just never comes on. I was wondering if the LFE output was maybe just a sum of the L + R signals when listening to two channel sources. I realize that for DD/DTS it is different. Interestingly though, if I use one of the psuedo surround modes i.e. DPL II or DTS Neo:6, there is plenty of bass and the sub leaps to life.

"I was wondering if the LFE output was maybe just a sum of the L + R signals when listening to two channel sources."

With 2-channel sources this should only be true when main L&R are set to "Small" and the frequencies below 100Hz are re-directed (bass management) to the sub. Is there is a "both" setting in the speaker setup menu for the sub?

> > If I am listening to 2 channel stereo with sub set to "on" and all speakers set to "large", what is coming out of the LFE output? Is it a full range signal, which is then dealt with by the sub's crossover, or is it already crossed over at whatever the Panny's filter setting (100, 150, 200) is set to? < <

I do think it would be sent the filtered setting as I don't think it can be bypassed.

Ron

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